“I very much look forward to the addition of Becky Hammon to our staff,” Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said in a press release. “I’m confident her basketball IQ, work ethic and interpersonal skills will be a great benefit to the Spurs.”

Hammon spent some time around the Spurs during the team’s run to the NBA championship last season.

Hammon announced on July 23 that she would retire as a player after this season, her 16th as a pro. She is a six-time WNBA all-star, and has spent the past eight seasons with the San Antonio Stars.

This is only the Spurs’ most recent high-profile hire. In July, Italian coach Ettore Messina was hired as an assistant.

Hammon, who played for Colorado State in college, went unpicked in the 1999 WNBA draft, but signed to the New York Liberty later that year. She spent eight seasons there before moving to the Stars.

She leads the Stars in all-time assists (1,112) and three-pointers (493), and ranks fourth in franchise history in points (3,442) and games (218). Hammon received the most votes in a poll for the Stars’ all-decade team.

Hammon is the NBA’s first female assistant coach, but it’s not the first time a woman has come close to being on the court. In 2011, Trish McGhee was hired as the Vancouver Grizzlies’ first female video coordinator. In 2013, the Los Angeles Clippers hired Natalie Nakase for the same position.

The same year, Mark Cuban, the outspoken owner of the Dallas Mavericks said he would give 6ft 8in Baylor Bears center Brittney Griner a chance to try out for the Mavericks. A day later, he reiterated the offer, and SportsCenter tweeted the news using the hashtag #GrinerNBA. The hashtag became a repository for misogynistic and sexist reaction from fans.